By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a solid foundation for working with TypeScript in VS Code, and you'll be ready to take advantage of TypeScript's features to create more reliable and maintainable code.
Let's embark on this journey to elevate your JavaScript projects with the robust capabilities of TypeScript!
This will guide you through the process of setting up TypeScript in your local development environment, specifically focusing on Visual Studio Code (VS Code), one of the most popular code editors available today.
We'll start by walking you through the installation of TypeScript and configuring VS Code to handle TypeScript files efficiently. Then, we'll delve into learning the basic types of TypeScript.
Let's get started!
Install TypeScript
Open your terminal or command prompt and install TypeScript globally using npm with the following command:
npm install -g typescript
This allows you to use the TypeScript compiler (tsc) from anywhere in your system.
Initialize Your Project
Create a new directory for your project and navigate into it:
mkdir my-typescript-project
cd my-typescript-project
Initialize a new npm package within your project directory:
npm init -y
The -y flag will skip the questionnaire and generate a default package.json file.
Install TypeScript Locally
Although you’ve installed TypeScript globally, it’s a good practice to have it as a local dependency in your project as well:
npm install typescript --save-dev
Create a tsconfig.json File
The tsconfig.json file specifies the root files and the compiler options required to compile the project. You can generate a default tsconfig.json file by running:
tsc --init
You can then customize this file as needed for your project.
Write a TypeScript Code
Create a new file with a .ts. extension, for example, index.ts, and start writing your TypeScript code.
// File: index.ts
// A function to add two numbers and return the result
function addNumbers(a: number, b: number): number {
return a + b;
}
// Call the function with two numbers
let result: number = addNumbers(10, 15);
// Output the result to the console
console.log(`The sum of 10 and 15 is ${result}`);
To compile this TypeScript code to JavaScript, you would use the TypeScript compiler (tsc) with the command tsc index.ts . This will generate a corresponding index.js file with the compiled JavaScript code.
Compile TypeScript to JavaScript
To compile your TypeScript code to JavaScript, run the following command:
tsc
If you have specified an outDiroutDir in your tsconfig.json, the compiled .js. files will be found there. Otherwise, they’ll be in the same directory as your .ts files.
Run your JavaScript Code
Finally, you can run your compiled JavaScript code using Node.js:
node index.js
Replace index.js with the path to your compiled JavaScript file.
And that’s it! You’ve successfully set up TypeScript in your local environment and are ready to start coding. Remember, you can always refer to the TypeScript documentation for more detailed information and advanced configurations. Happy coding!